Ferguson told the Manchester Evening News: “We are very pleased with the young players we have got. We have worked hard.
“The three Irish boys – Jonny Evans, Craig Cathcart and Darron Gibson – are exceptionally good.
“We’ve also got Lee Martin at Stoke at the moment. Danny Simpson is at Sunderland and Phil Bardsley is at Aston Villa. It is a good crop. Gerard Pique is in Zaragoza’s first team every week now in Spain and he has good potential. Giuseppe Rossi is at Parma and scoring goals.
“These are boys with potential at that age, at 19. They give us a future – there is no doubt about that.
“What we do with them next year is a big question mark for us because, when you are 19, you can appease them by putting them on loan for a spell.
“But, once they have had that loan period, they don’t want to be on loan forever. They want to come back and get into the first team.
“The question is: How do we view them in terms of first-team positions next season if we decided to bring them on at the same time? I think we will probably do that.
“That will be a challenge for them then but also a reminder to everyone else that there are players looking to take their position.”
